I was on Facebook one day and someone had posted this!
I really, really liked it, so I asked Karl if it was possible to make one, but smaller. He thought so and went in search of some wood. He found a couple of pieces that were o.k., but when he showed me this one I knew it was the one. He did hole making and this is what we now have.
Of course, if you have a new candle holder, you have to have a new candle mat. Any excuse will do for me to try out a new pattern.
I found one on FreePatterns. com -- you have to register before you can download -- and I liked it.
I had fabric in stock except for the candy cane. Wouldn't you know! Try and find red and white stripe fabric in my Town. Couldn't do it, but I did find this
and knew it would work.
Anita had her open house for Superior Threads and we went over. I picked up a lot of threads for topstitching with great plans on using that red on the candy canes.
Then I changed my mind.
While I was talking to Anita I asked her how to start and stop with MonoPoly Thread. That is the invisible thread that Superior carries. All the times I have taken classes and not one person has ever explained it to me and I've been doing my own thing which I knew wasn't right.
I opted to use the invisible on the candy canes as I didn't think it needed distraction from a coloured thread.
Let me explain invisible thread. It has a mind of it's own. It can sometimes be hard to thread through your needle, so if your foot shank doesn't come with a bit of white on it, hold a piece of paper behind the needle so you can see what you are doing. If that doesn't work for you, put the end of the thread on a piece of paper and run your black marker over it.
My thread tends to unravel while I'm sewing so I also do this.
Take a poly net and starting from the bottom of the spool of thread slide the net through the opening.
When you have the net through pull the rest of the net over the spool.
Slide the spool onto your spool holder
Your thread will come off the spool and you are set to go without it unravelling and wrapping itself around the thread holder.
Now to sew with it......
Tips from Anita.
Start your sewing with a straight stitch as small as you possibly can. My little machine will only go back to .5 so I held the fabric back while I stitched.
Make maybe 5 stitches and then start your zigzag. Work all the way around your piece and when you get to the end, do the same thing as you did at the beginning.
I defy that thread to come unstitched!
Tomorrow I'll show you the finished product and another tip on making the candle mat.
